The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 31, 1991
Filed:
Jun. 28, 1990
Thomson-CSF, Puteaux, FR;
Abstract
A quantum well electromagnetic wave detector disclosed having a semiconductor structure including a stacking of layers of material wherein the widths of the forbidden gaps of the materials are used to obtain a profile of potential energy corresponding to the bottom of the conduction band for the electrons in such a way that a first layer has a relatively low energy level with second and third layers having an intermediate energy higher than the energy of the first layer and fourth and fifth layers having high energy greater than either the intermediate or the low energy levels. The energy corresponding to a first permitted level is lower than the potential energy at the bottom of a conduction band of both of the materials used to make the second and third layers and the energy of the second level is between the potential energy at the bottom of a conduction band of both materials of the second and third layers and the potential energy of the bottom of the conduction band of the materials of the fourth and fifth layers. The first permitted level of energy of the quantum well is populated with electrons and an electric field is applied perpendicular to the plane of the structure.